10th Jun, 2026 12:00
Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026
61
⊕ ALAN DAVIE RA (BRITISH 1920-2014)
GIANT SKYSCAPE (OPUS 01948)
signed, titled and dated Alan Davie 08 / GIANT SKYSCAPE / Opus - 01948 on the reverse
oil on board
37 x 32cm; 14 1/2 x 12 1/2in
40 x 35cm; 15 3/4 x 13 3/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collector, Kingston
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Gimpel Fils, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 2020
Exhibited
Paris, Gimpel & Muller, Alan Davie, The Seventies, 2017
Alan Davie was one of the leading Scottish artists of his generation; his career spanned six decades and he first exhibited with Gimpel Fils in 1950. His rise to international prominence after the Second World War was precipitated by a number of exhibitions in Europe when his series of monumental paintings attracted the early attention of collectors. Davie was one of the first artists to appreciate the zeitgeist of the New York School, meeting de Kooning, Pollock, Motherwell amonst others in New York in 1956. The same year his work was purchased by a number of important museums. Throughout his career, Alan Davie had a long association with Cornwall and the St Ives School of Modernists, and was acquainted with most of the second generation of St Ives artists including Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Bryant Wynter and Peter Lanyon.
Sold for £600
GIANT SKYSCAPE (OPUS 01948)
signed, titled and dated Alan Davie 08 / GIANT SKYSCAPE / Opus - 01948 on the reverse
oil on board
37 x 32cm; 14 1/2 x 12 1/2in
40 x 35cm; 15 3/4 x 13 3/4in (framed)
Property from a Private Collector, Kingston
Provenance
Estate of the artist
Gimpel Fils, London
Acquired from the above by the present owner circa 2020
Exhibited
Paris, Gimpel & Muller, Alan Davie, The Seventies, 2017
Alan Davie was one of the leading Scottish artists of his generation; his career spanned six decades and he first exhibited with Gimpel Fils in 1950. His rise to international prominence after the Second World War was precipitated by a number of exhibitions in Europe when his series of monumental paintings attracted the early attention of collectors. Davie was one of the first artists to appreciate the zeitgeist of the New York School, meeting de Kooning, Pollock, Motherwell amonst others in New York in 1956. The same year his work was purchased by a number of important museums. Throughout his career, Alan Davie had a long association with Cornwall and the St Ives School of Modernists, and was acquainted with most of the second generation of St Ives artists including Patrick Heron, Terry Frost, Bryant Wynter and Peter Lanyon.
Auction: Live Sale: Fine Paintings, Works on Paper and Sculpture June 2026, 10th Jun, 2026
L.S. Lowry’s expansive Figures on a Beach (lot 39) is the lead painting in our June sale that ranges from the Old Masters to Modern British and post-War & Contemporary. Many of the works have been in the same collection for decades; a number have fascinating stories attached.
The first seven lots of Dutch and Flemish Old Masters are from the collection of Paul Wertheimer. Acquired almost hundred years ago, Wertheimer brought the works to England when he fled Germany in 1938. Leading the group are 17th century panels attributed to Moses van Uyttenbroeck and Lucas van Uden, the latter a reduced copy of Rubens’ original in the Royal Collection (lots 1 & 4). Another early panel, a portrait of Cornelisz. Van Beresteyn, is by a follower of Michiel Jansz. van Miereveld (lot 9).
Works by fellow artists and friends Augustus John and Edgar Augustus ‘Loben’ Slade (lots 20-25) feature John’s early portrait of Loben and five works on paper by the lesser known Slade, nephew of the founder of the Slade School of Art, one of which is a watercolour of Jessie McNeill, John’s model, muse and mistress.
Also in the sale are seven works by Australian artists, including Jeffrey Smart, William Blamire Young and Leonard French, all from a private collection in Surrey (lots 30-36), and ten paintings from a Cheshire Collection that features the work of Helen Bradley, Edouard Cortes and Marcel Dyf together with bracing coastal views by Campbell Archibald Mellon (lots 40-48).
A small and fascinating work on paper is by Paul Nash. It captures the view of Harry Rocks off Ballard Down from Nash's flat in Swanage where he was living in the mid-1930s and which he incorporated into his Surrealist work ahead of the major Surrealist exhibition in London of 1936 (lot 27).
Beside the Lowry beach scene, other post-War works include an important early sculpture by James Tower (lot 52), a leading sculptor-ceramicist of his generation. Other post-War abstract works include examples by Frank Avray Wilson, James Hull and Etienne Beothy (lots 50, 51, 55 & 57).
For more information please contact us | pictures@olympiaauctions.com | +44 (0)20 7806 5541
Viewing
PUBLIC EXHIBITION:
Sunday 7th June: 12pm - 4pm
Monday 8th June: 10am - 8pm (Drinks 5 - 8pm)
Tuesday 9th June: 10am - 5pm
